The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1887-05-14

But In 1907 II was changed to a specific
duty, graduated to the different sizes, but
averaged about 10 per cent al raior,tm
and remained the same for fifteen years
or until 1912. The census of 1910 showed
the Industry to be most flourishin g
In that census year We manufactured over
million dollars worth Of glass, and we
imported but 1000 worth. J. ID. Weeks
the tariff specialist, says the specific duty
on glass was equivalent to 10 per cent. ir
1910. That Is, under tariff of 10 pei
cent on glass we, In 1910, manufactured
over million dollars worth, and as com
pared with other industries, glass manu-
featuring WAS far In advance Of the rest
and that too without protection, | wish N
distinctly marked, that In that census year
with duty Of but 10 per cent. on glass, We
manufactured 90 per cent. OF our glass and
imported per cent Of 1t. Whereas, ir1
1884. under protective tariff Of from sc
to 1870 per cent on glass, we manufactured
but 20 per cent. and imported 25 per cent
of 1t. And Of window glass alone we manu-
featured less than four million dollars
worth, and imported $2,4l7,738 worth,
which paid duty of 81 ,669,54s, or an av
erage duty of 70 per cent, So In 1886, wei
imported over half as much as We manu-
featured, and over third of what We con-
sumed, and this too under an average duty.
of 10 per cent. on window glass Why it
IT that as we increase tine tariff we manu- :
facture smaller proportion OF our glass =
In that census year, 1910, Albert Gala /.
tin, the Secretary of the Treasury, and one,
of the largest glass manufacturers of the.
country, in his report to Congress declaredii
that the glass industry was firmly estab-d
lished." In that year also Dewitt Clinton
the glass industry, in his opinion,
overdone In New York-there being then
ten factories In the state, greater number
than there are to-day in the state of Illinois.
Pennsylvania was then, as now, the lead. /,
ing glass producing state, and The Nariga-i
tor, a paper published in Pittsburgh I'M
1914, declared that, The manufacture of
glass in Pittsburgh has succeeded as we'll :
as the most sanguine had expected" etc.
Joseph d. Weeks, special agent, reporting
upon the glass industry for the 10th cen
sus, says that the number of factories in
creased so fast after 1910 that 1t was most
difficult to trace them.
Indeed there is nothing in our history
better established than the fact that under
absolute free trade, and in the face Of the {
hostile and repressive Legislation of Eng
land in our colonial days, glass manufac-
turing was leading industry, and that It
is not child of protection, but upon the
contrary, it had arrived at vigorous man !,
hood in 1910 under low revenue tariff,
before the system of protecting American
industry was inaugurated. 1t could not :
have been established by protection, as AL (
bert Gallatin officially reported 1t to have /,
been "f,mly established" many years be.
fore the protective system itself was in
am aware that the preamble of the first !
tariff Of 1889 recited, as one of its sup /
posed benefits, that 1t would encourage do :
nestle manufacture. But this was make
weight to induce the states to consent even
to that low tariff for revenue. The object !.
of the first tariff was revenue, to fill an
empty treasury. The protective system
was not inaugurated until many years
nor until many years after the !.
glass industry was firmly and permanently :.
established. l admit that, If may be al
lowed the expression, protection is mere
necessary to the glass industry than to any
other industry of America, and l propose .
to show in succeeding papers that it has
been an unmitigated dead-level curse to
that BYsTANDER.